Thank you Matter, Boulder Startup Week Veteran Sponsor!

Welcome Matter, veteran sponsors of Boulder Startup Week! We are so thankful for organizations like Matter; the engines that help make Startup Week possible.

Matter is a Brand Elevation Agency unifying public relations, social media, creative services, and search and digital marketing into strategic, content-rich communications campaigns that inspire action and build value. Founded in 2003, with five offices spanning North America, Matter works with the world’s most innovative companies across healthcare, high-technology, consumer technology and consumer markets.

Public relations is at the core of Matter’s business, but they do so much more than PR. As the business landscape shifts from faceless companies to human connections, Matter recognizes that brand elevation is the future of PR, and now includes digital marketing, media relations, social media, video and graphics. The ever-evolving communications market is vibrant and filled with opportunity for brand-oriented companies to better establish themselves, and for professionals who want to be creative in their approach.

Here are 5 ways communications will change in the next 15 years, according to Matter CEO Scott Signore:

Emotional brand marketing will have a heightened importance. Smart and savvy brand managers will seek ways to further connect their beloved products and services to the hopes, dreams and directions of their audiences – in a personal way that drives further brand loyalty. But, this will need to be carefully balanced with heightening concerns about privacy. As marketers become more digitally savvy about tailoring messaging to hyper-targeted audiences, there will be a greater drive to fully disclose HOW the brand knows what the audience wants, and that the information wasn’t harvested through data the customer didn’t know the brand possessed. This act of balance between privacy and emotional appeal will separate the brands that do well from the ones that fail.

There will be increased attention given to the quality of content. That goes for still and moving images, and copy in all forms and formats. Is it as good (engaging) as it needs to be? That question will be asked by marketing professionals as they further assess not just the avenues their content travels, but also the content itself. And, agency professionals will be held to a higher standard with expectations even greater than today.

Customer engagement will continue to be a priority – and the channels for connecting with customers will be countless. Some of the current and popular platforms will expire, fade away or just die on the vine – trend data shows that’s already afoot with younger generations. Acknowledging that all things change over time, staying educated on new technologies – opportunities to interact with customers, really – will continue to be key to a brand’s success.

Search marketing will be a BIG – bigger than it is today! – percentage of marketing budget for consumer-facing entities and those who market products and services in technology and B-to-B. It will further drive the creation of content, but it will be the backbone of many programs as opposed to being merely a supporting tactic. Matter is working to move search to the beginning of the planning discussions, and that’s where it will be across all client accounts shortly.

A brand’s genuine and organic commitment to charitable work – as a real extension of the business, not a line about CSR in the annual report – will be even more important. The challenges of those less fortunate are being elevated in the public dialogue – driven by a global “do-better” generation – and businesses will need to have real initiatives that demonstrate how they are paying attention and working to solve serious social issues at home and around the world. Companies that ignore this will be left behind by a generation of customers who prioritize helping others.

Join PR Extraordinaire and Startup guru Maria Brown at BaseCamp in Galvanize on Thursday, May 17th @ 4:45pm for Maintaining KickA$$ Culture During Rapid Growth. Kegs and nap pods aren’t enough. You need to create a culture your employees can grow and thrive in while your company does the same. In this talk we’ll discuss how to ensure you are creating a kicka$$ culture that people WANT to be work in, especially when you are experiencing rapid growth.

Matter is ingrained in the Boulder Startup Week Family. Thank you for your loyalty, we look forward to partnering for years to come!